The 2024/2025 season, subtitled Rapid Relay, kicked off with the new school year. Since September, registered teams could participate in several regional competitions in Hodkovice nad Mohelkou, Česká Lípa or Ústí nad Labem.
The traditional culmination of the first half of the year was the Czech Championship, which this year took place on Tuesday 28 January in the building of the Czech Institute of Informatics, Robotics and Cybernetics (CIIRC) of the Czech Technical University in Prague. 20 teams from all over the country competed at the tournament not only for the title of Czech Championship, but also for the opportunity to represent the Czech Republic at the VEX Worlds global finals in Dallas, USA.
Rapid Relay game
The goal of this year's Rapid Relay game is to achieve the highest score in both the individual and team challenge. Scoring is judged on throwing balls through the goal, switching switches and also passing balls between robots before placing them in the goal. To achieve the highest score, it is crucial to not only devise a strategy, but also to design and program the robot.
Winning teams
Team Challenge - Teamwork
RoboTitans (Na Valech Primary School, Litoměřice) and DoxVex (K. H. Máchy Primary School, Doksy)
Skills Challenge - Skills
RoboTitans (Na Valech Primary School, Litomerice)
Jury Award - Judges Award
Wild Bees (Velvary Primary School) - the jury awarded the team for their exemplary performance during the interview, interesting strategy, robot design and keeping an engineering diary.
Champion of the Czech Republic - Excellence Award
DoxVex - the team achieved outstanding results in the team and skills challenge, defended their strategy, design and construction of the robot in the interview and presented an excellent engineering diary.
What's next for us?
The competition season is far from over. In just a few days, some teams will go to international competitions in Slovenia and Finland, while the DoxVex team will represent the Czech Republic at the global competition in the USA.
The icing on the cake will be the VEX IQ Czech Open, which will take place on 4 and 5 June in Prague's O2 arena.
Robotics - the way to the future
Throughout the competition season you can see how the teams are improving. The teams that participate in multiple competitions see the biggest improvement - from each competition they take away inspiration, experience and new ideas for further improvements to their robot.
Robotics develops creativity and innovative thinking, and pupils learn to solve problems and find new solutions. It also encourages collaboration and communication, as programming robots is a team effort. It improves skills in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) areas and prepares students for a future where knowledge of technology and automation will be key.
Finally, robotics also raises awareness in the region's schools, among the public and partners, and inspires the next generation of young engineers.
